Return of Jason
by CountofMonteCristo17
Summary: Dick and Damien have just gotten back to the Batcave after a long patrol. They are both tired and Dick has sustained heavy injuries. As they start debriefing, Dick senses they are not alone.


**Slight AU where Jason was the first Robin and Dick was the second. Everyone has their same origin stories, and in this timeline, Dick is Batman and Damien is Robin.**

 **Author's Note: the healing pod incident Dick alludes to when talking to Jason takes place while Dick was still Robin and nearly died in combat. Not believing Dick will make it leads Batman to say the seemingly insensitive things mentioned below. Enjoy!**

 _Dick and Damien have just gotten back to the Batcave after a long patrol. They are both tired and Dick has sustained heavy injuries. As they start debriefing, Dick senses they are not alone._

Light flooded into the previously gloomy cave, and at its brilliance, the bats which had been resting peacefully overhead began to fly across the ceiling, a moving cloud of darkness. A black, heavily armored black car was pulling into the cavern and came to a stop on a small platform. The doors opened to reveal none other than Gotham's dynamic duo, Batman and Robin. However rather than striking imposing figures, they seemed rather worse for wear. Batman in particular seemed to be in need of medical attention as he leaned back into the seat, seemingly lacking the strength to rise. Robin quickly ran over to lend his support.

"Grayson you idiot," the brightly clad youth admonished as he bent over so Batman could throw his arm around him, "do you wish to die of blood loss? Or perhaps you just want to fall unconscious on the cave floor?"

At this, Batman let out a weak chuckle, a strange action for the embodiment of vengeance, and lifting up a hand removed the cowl which had previously masked his features. Beneath the cold white lens of the impartial mask, a pair of bright youthful eyes were revealed, energetic, despite the exhaustion plain on the rest of his body's countenance.

"You know me Dami," the man said with a grin, "always have to do things the hard way. Besides, what's a couple of bruised ribs?" Still smiling, he attempted to ruffle Robin's hair, but the movement seemed to aggravate his wounds, and he doubled over reflexively as a moan escaped his lips. This action nearly succeeded in toppling the pair to the floor as Batman was still leaning heavily on Robin.

"Tchh." Damien tutted, "bruised? More like broken! And that's not the only injury you sustained tonight either. I warned you about entering that warehouse, but like a fool, you refused to listen!"

"Yes yes," Dick grimaced as they began to make their way slowly across the walkway to the main landing, "next time, I'll be sure to study exactly how you would handle being blasted through a bullet proof window."

"I would never be so imprudent as to let myself be _thrown_ into that situation."

At this response Batman stopped walking and stared at his protégé incredulously. "Did you- did you just make a pun?!"

Frowning in annoyance, Damien tutted, "Tchh, Grayson do I need to check you for head injuries as well?"

"Oh you did make a pun!" Dick gushed through his pain, "I am so proud!"

Still frowning, Damien began leading Dick back towards the platform, but under his breath muttered, "You are the worst influence."

"Anyways, you don't have to worry about me Little D," Dick continued, oblivious to his partner's remark, "the cape took most of the impact, and as I recall you didn't come out tonight unscathed either." He cast an anxious glance down at his younger brother. "Alfred will want to check you over before releasing us for the night, but who knows? If we're lucky maybe we'll get some cookies out of it!" With that cheerful thought in mind, Dick's smile returned, only to be quickly replaced with a grimace and another stifled groan.

Tightening his hold on his brother, Damien scolded, "That does it! You are in no condition to do anything other than visit the medbay! I forbid it!"

"Aye, aye Captain Dami," Dick chuckled in defeat, "Besides, Alfred will have both of our heads if we don't let him patch us up." By this time the weary duo had reached the main landing of the cave and Damien deposited his load onto the computer seat, before standing and glancing around.

"Where is Pennyworth anyway?"

At this statement, Dick lifted his head up, suddenly on high alert, and springing from his seat said in a commanding voice normally reserved specifically for the cowl, "Get behind me Robin."

Startled by this sudden change of attitude, Damien did not hesitate to obey, and quickly cast his gaze about the cave in search for the cause of his brother's agitation, but his eyes could discern nothing in the impenetrable gloom.

"Grayson?" Damien asked uneasily, glancing up at him in worry, without falling out of his fighting stance. Dick however, ignored Damien's question and stood resolute, facing the deepest recesses of the cave with a strange look on his face.

"I know you're there." He called, "Come out…Jason."

"Jason?" Damien echoed confused as a man in a red hood emerged seamlessly from the shadows to stand before them. The man wore body armor, much like their own, and over this he wore a tight fitting leather jacket emblazoned with a red bat. At his hip he wore two holstered glocks, and his boots scarcely made any noise as he revealed himself to the crime-fighters.

Once in the light, the man calmly removed his helmet, and at the sight of this apparition, Dick's face paled, and his features became rigid, as if he could not actually believe who it was that stood before him. Peering cautiously around Dick, Damien took stock of the man's muscled physique, his raven black hair, and the black domino mask he wore underneath that reminded him so very much of his own.

"I prefer to go by Red Hood these days Dickie." The man lazily replied, placing the helmet casually under one arm against his side, "But I can see you go by another name now too." He gestured toward the Batman suit Dick currently wore.

"What do you want Jay? Where's Alfred?" Dick asked in a strained voice, and Damien could not recall a time when he had seen his normally playful brother so somber and grim.

"Relax _Batman_." Jason spoke the word as if it were an insult, "Alfie is perfectly fine, I put the old man to bed. He'll wake up with a slight headache tomorrow, but otherwise no worse for wear."

At this casual remark of harm done to his family, Damien could keep silent no longer, "How dare you!" he cried, moving out from behind Dick, "You have no right to be here-"

"No right?!" Jason thundered, his previously calm features were now twisted into a malicious and crazed look, "I have EVERY RIGHT!"

"Robin…" Dick murmured in warning, and reached out to try and bring his partner back behind him to safety.

Taking a few steps forward so he was out of Dick's reach, Damien resumed his tirade, complete unfazed, "You heard me delinquent! You have no right to wear that symbol!" he pointed an accusatory finger at the intruder's chest.

Jason had remained eerily motionless throughout Damien's outburst, and Dick could sense trouble. Rapidly advancing to Damien, he placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, intent on pulling him back, but the instant he touched him, Damien haughtily threw him off and scowled at him, mouth open in protest, when out of the corner of his eye, Dick saw Jason move.

With sudden urgency, Dick reached toward Damien once more to pull him out of harm's way, but it was too late. Caught off balance, as he was still partially facing Dick, and slowed by exhaustion, upon hearing the crack of a gunshot, Damien tried to pivot away in reflex, but he only managed to face the projectile head on rather than dodge. The force of it pushed him backward into Dick's arms, and he was dimly aware of a sharp prick in his chest that was distinctly different from the typical gunshot wounds he had grown accustomed to.

"Damien!" Dick shouted as he caught his brother and lowered him gently to the ground. Expecting to see blood covering his brother's chest, he was shocked to discover the bullet Jason had shot him with wasn't a bullet at all, it was a dart. After assuring himself Damien was breathing and relatively okay he glared at Jason with such hatred and betrayal, a lesser man would have cowered under its power, but Jason didn't so much as flinch.

"What have you done?" Dick screamed, voice livid with barely suppressed emotion.

"The kid was beginning to annoy me." Jason said coldly, "besides, this is an adult conversation; our business has nothing to do with him."

Dick turned his attention back to Damien who he found conscious, yet seemingly unable to move.

"Why can't he move?" Dick demanded, not bothering to look up.

"My my," Jason hummed with pleasure upon seeing Dick so distraught, "don't tell me you care about the demon spawn that much?" This was met with another bat-glare from Dick and Jason smiled cruelly before continuing, "Jellyfish toxin, compliments of Cheshire. Temporary and relatively harmless. I told you Dickie, I'm only here for you."

Without warning Jason began firing at Dick with a marksman's precision, and the younger man barely had time to release Damien and jump out of the way. Unfortunately, now Damien lay prone in-between them.

Lying helpless on the ground, Damien was internally seething with rage. Not only had he allowed himself to be caught off guard by the Red Hood of all people, he was now a prisoner in his own body, and could do nothing to aid his brother. He struggled against his limbs fruitlessly and soon had to content himself with trying to gage what was happening outside of his line of sight.

"What's this about Jason?" Dick demanded, "What could you possibly want from me?"

Jason holstered his now empty gun and began slowly circling his quarry. Dick mimicked his movements so as not to lose sight of him.

"What I want, is justice." Jason hissed, eyes narrowing.

"Justice?" Dick scoffed, "What kind of justice can I give you?"

"You can die for starters." Was the harsh reply.

"Is that why you're here Jay, to kill me? Because let me tell you bro, that's not justice, it's murder."

"You think you know murder Golden Boy? Huh? Just because you've seen it?! Well I've felt it, up close and personal, and I'm here to make sure you feel it too."

They continued circling, growing steadily closer as they spoke.

"Jay please." Dick pleaded, going for a different tactic, "I know what happened, I know what you must be going through, but- "

That did it.

"AHHH" Jason roared, launching himself at Dick. True to his acrobatic nature, Dick flipped skillfully over Hood's outstretched leg and using Jason's shoulders as a spring board, spun midair to land behind him. But Jason was familiar with this move and almost as soon as Dick had landed he was struck by Jason's fist. He staggered back gasping, and clutched his already wounded torso.

"You don't know anything!" Jason cried, not giving him the chance to recover, "I _died_ for him, and how does that bastard repay me? By picking _you_ up the following month! He was probably glad to be rid of me-"

He was cut off as Dick landed a blow to his stomach. Weary and wounded though he might be, Dick Grayson was anything but helpless. "He _loved_ you Jason!" Dick said hoarsely, "and no matter what I did, I could never live up to your great legacy. How could I? How could I best the Robin who died for our cause?" he said bitterly. "I could never be better than you simply because I lived."

Jason leapt forward to reengage and soon the two were back at it, but Dick was tiring fast, and they both knew it.

"Don't try and make your life seem pitiful," Jason spat, "He gave you everything he never gave me; time, attention, even his _love_. You gained everything I lost and more, and it's about time someone knocked you off your pedestal to stand with the rest of us."

"What are you going to do Jason? Shoot me?" Dick taunted as they traded blows.

"Shoot you?" Jason laughed, "That would be letting you off easy Dickie-bird. No I want you to suffer like I suffered! I want you to feel what I felt when _he_ left me for dead before replacing me with a newer model." The two jumped apart for a moment panting. "He would have never let you die! Golden child, the prodigy." He spat, "I bet I wasn't even cold in the grave before he–"

"Ahhhh!" Dick yelled as he leapt forward and punched Red Hood straight in the face, "Do you know where I was?" he shouted, emotion twisting his face, as Jason reeled backwards "While you were up there, I was down at your feet dying!" He pulled his arm back for another blow, but Jason recovered and sweeping Dick's unsteady legs out from under him, leapt away and pulled out a gun aiming directly at Dick's chest. The younger hero lay sprawled on the ground, and glared at Jason, but seemed otherwise unconcerned at his predicament.

"I was dying," he continued softly, "and do you know what he [Batman] said to me while I was in the pod [healing]? When he thought I couldn't hear?" He glared at the ground, bitterness transfiguring his normally jovial demeanor into a twisted snarl. "He said, 'You're not like him. I hope you don't make it. You're not good enough.'" He spat out the words as though they were poison.

"That's what he said to me as I lay dying…" he trailed off in a broken whisper, while silent tears slid their way down his cheeks. Still looking downward, he didn't notice Jason's face harden behind the domino mask, but the arm holding the gun never wavered.

Dick slowly pushed himself up on shaky muscles and after regaining his footing, promptly turned his back on Hood and limped slowly back to where Damien was weakly stirring. Behind him, Jason quickly felt any remorse he may have felt vanish at this display of arrogance. How dare Mr. Perfect turn his back on him? As though he wasn't enough of a threat to warrant his full attention, even with a fully loaded gun still trained on his exposed back.

Overcome with an animalistic rage, Jason charged at Dick, determined to make him feel an ounce of the pain he himself was constantly plagued with. They crashed into each other, and their combined momentum pushed them off the walkway into the open air. As they fell Jason pinned Dick's arms to his sides to prevent a last minute aerobatic escape, but either Dick was too injured or too tired to care because he didn't even attempt to break free as they plummeted to the platform beneath.

From his position on the ground, Damien had been unable to see most of the fight between Dick and Red Hood. Furious, he worked his muscles, commanding them to move, but he had no control. Frustrated, he had resorted to breathing techniques to try and speed along the paralytic, hoping it wouldn't last too much longer because from the sound of things, Batman desperately needed his Robin. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Damien found he was able to move his fingers and toes, and not long after, he began slowly gaining limited control of the rest of his muscles.

He was only half listening to what insults were being traded between the two men, so intensely was he trying to command his body to move, that by the time he managed to get himself upright, he only managed to catch sight of his brother being tackled over the walkway for a brief moment before he plummeted out of view.

"No!" With new found strength, Damien raced over to the edge and without thinking threw himself after them. "Let him go!" he cried to Hood, "He can't catch himself!" Grayson may be an aerialist, but even he had to obey gravity. To Damien's utter astonishment, Hood complied with his desperate pleas, and released Dick as they fell, but it was too late. As Hood rolled out of his fall safely, Dick continued to let gravity pull him down unhindered until his body smacked painfully into the cave floor. He didn't move.

Damien barely managed an awkward somersault and came to a not so graceful landing a few feet away. As he pushed himself up, he saw Red Hood pointing a gun at Dick's prone form, and his normally active brain froze in fearful anticipation.

"Shoot me instead!" he blurted without thinking, praying injuring him would be good enough for the incited vigilante. He was smart enough to realize that Jason didn't want to actually kill Dick, just prove his dominance; he just hoped this no kill policy applied to him as well.

To be perfectly honest, he wasn't completely confident Dick could handle a gunshot wound on top of everything else, and though he liked to pretend otherwise, he knew his partner was not as invincible as he seemed.

A snort of disbelief escaped from Hood's mouth as he shifted his attention to the barely standing Robin.

"You want to take a bullet for your Batman kid?" something flashed across his face too fast for Damien to recognize, "Maybe I should grant your wish. Then you'll see how pointless all of this is." He gestured to the cave around them. "There are no hero's kid," he said darkly, "It's all just a façade that I took too long to see through…but maybe I can help you avoid that same mistake." He aimed his pistol directly at Robin's chest. "Let's see how your Batman reacts to the death of his Robin."

But just as Hood made to pull the trigger Dick moved from his prone position, and both pairs of eyes quickly turned to him.

He was trying and failing to push himself off the ground and as his arms gave way beneath him cried out, "No! Dami…no! Please Hood…" he was sobbing; begging as he continued his desperate attempts to get up and protect his brother. If he could just get to Damien…

"Jason…" he pleaded, desperation in his voice. He coughed, and blood splattered the ground beneath him. "Jason…please…"

In his head, Damien cursed this man who had reduced Grayson to such ploys as begging. He hated hearing the brokenness in his brother's voice. Batman should not beg. Grayson should not beg! It was beneath him, he was better than that! He hated Grayson for allowing himself to show such weakness, but most of all he hated the Red Hood who had brought the man this low.

He was broken; body and spirit, and everyone knew it. With sudden clarity, Dick realized how easily Jason could kill him, he was certainly in no condition to fight, it was a miracle he was still conscious, and Damien was hardly faring any better. His body still partially paralyzed, there was no way he could best Red Hood in hand to hand. For the first time in a long time, Damien was afraid, but he forced his chin up and tried to stand as straight as he could. Hood would not be granted the satisfaction of seeing any weakness from _him_.

Then, Jason was laughing, and for a split second he sounded exactly like the mad man who had killed him. "Don't worry _Batman_." He said the name mockingly once more. "I don't want to hurt little bird there, no I just want you. It's always been you." His laughter faded into a mocking smile. "Now hold still Dickie-bird, I don't want to miss." And he moved his gun away from Damien to once again rest on his replacement.

Dick was shaking so badly from exhaustion and blood loss, he was barely upright. His eyes wouldn't focus, and his body felt numb and heavy, but so long as Hood left Damien alone, he would gladly take whatever pain the anti-hero had to dish out.

"Hold still." Jason whispered, and then he fired.

The next thing Damien knew he was on the ground beside Dick and his mind immediately jumped to the worst case scenario. Dick was never that still, there was so much blood, it was all in his hair, his eyes were closed…

 _Pull yourself together!_ He berated himself, _Dick needs you!_ But it wasn't until his trembling fingers finally found a weak pulse that his training finally kicked in. Apply pressure to the wound, he thought dispassionately. Stop the blood flow, monitor vitals– _Don't die, don't die, don't die._ Suddenly Jason's voice penetrated his silent mantra.

The arrogant jerk was just standing there; gun reholstered, hand on his hip, relaxed as could be. "Word to the wise kid," he said, "whenever you get a chance to shoot, you take it." Then he casually turned and began walking away.

"Next time I have you in my sights, I'll be sure to do just that!" Damien retaliated, but Red Hood was already gone, swallowed up by the shadows, leaving two broken heroes in his wake.


End file.
